"We have all generations who do the agricultural shows, right down to little babies," she said.

"It's completely different to circus life or anything like that. We have Christmas off, we have a few weeks off," Ms Calder said.

The appeal of running a stall lies in the unique, gypsy lifestyle.

Every year Ms Calder and her family drive their exhibit from town to town to as far as Cairns.

Although she has a permanent home in Broadford in central Victoria, Ms Calder does not like to settle in the one place for too long.

"Every show area is like going into a little town. We all know each other. Some are related, some are not. We get new ones in, old ones go out."

Ms Calder and her family live out of a large caravan while on the road. The van, which is parked behind the stall, is set up with an annex sheltering a clothesline of the family's washing.

All in the timing

The family is touring Victoria's agricultural shows and are presently in Maffra, east Gippsland.

The Victorian Showmen's Guild is the representative body for show stallholders. The guild has 350 members and services 100 agricultural shows.

Ms Calder has owned her set of fibre glass clowns for more 40 years. Surprisingly they rarely break down, although she provides cosmetic maintenance from time to time, hand painting their facial features.

"Anything that's done by hand has quirks, they all look a little bit different," she said.

She said the trick to winning a prize with the clowns was in the timing.

"Children often have a better chance at winning a game because they don't over think it," she said.

"I've seen more little kids get it than adults. They get in a rut of what they're doing, and it's the right timing."

Over the years Ms Calder has witnessed all types of people try their luck with the clowns, from young crying children that do not want to leave the game, to groups of 80-year-old ladies reminiscing about their childhoods.

Burgeoning drug problem

She has seen teenagers trying to cheat, boyfriends trying to impress girlfriends and countless toddler meltdowns.

"You can pick them a mile away," she said.

After more than half a century of touring, she has become a seasoned observer of people and has witnessed the devastating effects of a burgeoning drug culture in many regional towns .

"The drug situation in all the towns, it really makes me upset. It is ruining towns and ruining the kids. It makes you a bit sad. They should stop playing video games and go out yabbying and catching butterflies."

Covering nearly one-third of the continent, in deserts with poor soils, humble Australian spinifex grasses contain nano-sized particles that can amp the performance of a range of everyday items, researcher Nasim Amiralian writes.

Former treasurer Wayne Swan says that real private sector wages have grown by just 1 per cent under the Abbott and Turnbull governments, which he says equates to only one year of growth under the previous Labor government.